Featured

It’s important to know how your food is produced, why it’s produced that way and how the world can produce enough to feed itself in the coming years. We invite you to take a look at the collaborations we are making in agriculture, and to learn more about Monsanto.

Featured

Last month, Monsanto was recognized at National FFA Convention as one of the five platinum sponsors of the National FFA Foundation in Louisville, Ky. Check out our infographic highlighting a few of the focus areas Monsanto supports within the FFA sponsorship.

Featured

Our America’s Farmers campaign features real farm families doing what they do every day – growing not only our food, but also our economy and our quality of life here in America. We're all connected to agriculture and it’s time we, as a nation, learn more about the industry that provides for us every day.

Honey Bee Health

The Challenge

Bees play a vital role in agriculture as natural pollinators.Pollination is a necessary part of some plants’ fertilization processes, because it allows for the development of fruits and seeds.

One-third of the food you eat depends upon pollination, including almonds, apples, berries, cucumbers and melons. Honey bees have an important role in contributing a service that helps provide us with variety and more nutritious food.

Farmers are facing the challenge of providing more food for a growing population.And, the honey bee population has been facing its own problems.Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) - is a phenomenon in which bees are disappearing abruptly from an otherwise healthy colony.The USDA report confirms that there are many causes that compromise bee health, including pathogens or diseases, poor nutrition and pesticides.

Interactive

Hover over, or if you're using a touchscreen device, tap the blue dots below to learn more about the role honey bees play in providing food for breakfast.

What Monsanto is Doing to Help

Honey Bee Health Coalition

Monsanto is a member of the Honey Bee Health Coalition facilitated by The Keystone Center, which brings together beekeepers, growers, researchers, government agencies, agribusinesses, conservation groups, manufacturers and brands, and other key partners to improve the health of honey bees and other pollinators. The Coalition’s mission is to collaboratively implement solutions that will help to achieve a healthy population of honey bees while also supporting healthy populations of native and managed pollinators in the context of productive agricultural systems and thriving ecosystems. The Coalition is focusing on accelerating collective impact to improve honey bee health in four key areas: forage and nutrition, hive management, crop pest management, and communications, outreach and education.

As a company solely focused on agriculture, we recognize the importance of bees to both our business and growers.We are committed to supporting honey bee health and researching solutions for these complex issues.

Monsanto is collaborating with PAm to assist in forage projects in order to provide more nutritious food for bees.Beekeepers are often concerned with whether there is enough forage or food available during pollination seasons.The availability of natural pollen equates to healthier bees, and healthier bees are better able to tolerate stressors. By planting a variety of plants to contribute to the available pollen, this collaboration will help enable around 1.6 million honey bee colonies, which are annually transported to the California almond fields, to have access to increased nutrition sources during their work in California.

Honey Bee Advisory Council (HBAC)

The Honey Bee Advisory Council is comprised of members of the beekeeping industry, experts and academia. We have learned a great deal about the complicated challenges facing beekeepers.With this council as a guiding force, our bee health research and development efforts are focused on the leading challenges.

Beeologics

In 2011, Monsanto acquired the Israel-based company, Beeologics. Beeologics research focuses on testing biological products to provide targeted control of pests and diseases in order to provide safe, effective ways to protect the honey bee.For example, a major factor of Colony Collapse Disorder is credited to the parasitic varroa mite.This mite weakens bees’ immune system and spreads viruses.

Currently, BioDirect - our first biological technology platform - is in discovery phase, but has shown promising results in testing that it could be effective against specific insects, such as varroa mites, while leaving beneficial insects unaffected. To put it simply, research is being done to control a problem insect on a beneficial insect.

Additionally, field trials are creating tremendous datasets that will be helpful to continuing research and the beekeeping community.

Honey bees are essential for productive agriculture and the environment. The collaboration with PAm, the Honey Bee Advisory Council and Monsanto provides a strong foundation to help to find sustainable solutions to bee health.